WASHINGTON — The far-left Southern Poverty Law Center trained prosecutors for the Department of Justice and received exclusive access to federal hate crime databases, assisting in crafting talking points during President Joe Biden’s administration, according to sources.
This collaboration is one of several alliances the Biden DOJ’s Civil Rights Division established with left-leaning organizations to influence its stance on matters such as “election security,” “racial profiling guidance,” “anti-LGBTQ violence,” and various hate crime incidents, as revealed through internal communications, documents, and records.
A trove of documents outlining this collaboration was obtained by the conservative organization America First Legal (AFL) through a prolonged investigation into the Biden administration’s law enforcement priorities, initiated via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that led to litigation.
In 2022, staff within the Civil Rights Division began to actively seek guidance from the SPLC on civil rights concerns to monitor and invited representatives to quarterly meetings within the department.
In an email dated October 28, 2022, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke reached out to SPLC CEO Margaret Huang, sharing insights on their work regarding prison conditions in the Deep South and inquiring about civil rights issues the group felt should be prioritized.
Later, the SPLC was noted among attendees at a meeting on November 14, 2022, that included prominent DOJ officials such as Clarke, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta.
In the following month, the SPLC was among six organizations granted early access to the FBI’s 2021 hate crime data, along with the Leadership Conference, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the Sikh Coalition, and the Arab American Institute.
“I value having access to an embargoed copy,” stated Michael Lieberman, the SPLC’s senior policy counsel overseeing hate and extremism, in a December 6, 2022, email to Deputy Assistant Attorney General Robert Moossy Jr., who had reached out for input.
“I have completed my draft backgrounder and talking points, and I would appreciate discussing the report with you,” Lieberman further indicated. “I have the topic lined up for the civil rights groups meeting with DAG Monaco on Friday.”
By March 2023, the DOJ engaged the SPLC and other organizations involved in a civil rights lawsuit against the Louisville Police Department, which had been dismissed by the Trump administration in May. Clarke even visited the SPLC’s headquarters in Montgomery, Alabama, during a commemoration of the 1965 civil rights march from Selma.
These exchanges were first highlighted by the Daily Signal, which also noted that during her Senate confirmation, Clarke failed to disclose an allegation from her ex-husband accusing her of violent behavior during a domestic dispute in July 2006.
During the DOJ’s Hate Crimes Symposium in November 2023, an SPLC research analyst spoke on aiding investigators and prosecutors in recognizing potential biases in crime, offering insights on “alarming trends related to the anti-LGBTQ movement.”
Over 100 DOJ prosecutors and trial attorneys attended the symposium, held from November 7-9, which also included participation from SPLC staff, as indicated in a communication thread involving Clarke, Moossy, and other officials.
Despite the discussions occurring just one month after the October 7, 2023, terror attacks by Hamas in Israel that resulted in approximately 1,200 fatalities, the symposium did not address what would soon be identified as a drastic increase in antisemitism and associated hate crimes.
The senior SPLC research analyst who addressed the symposium, R.G. Cravens, controversially connected efforts to promote “viewpoint diversity” with “white nationalism,” according to AFL, and falsely associated AFL’s legal challenge against Target with bomb threats, neglecting to mention that the source of those threats stemmed from leftist activists demanding increased LGBTQ merchandise.
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“Every American should be concerned that the Biden DOJ seems to have acted as a tool for radical activists at the discredited SPLC,” stated Gene Hamilton, President of America First Legal.
“By weaponizing civil rights enforcement, Biden’s DOJ has compromised the rule of law and jeopardized the constitutional rights of Americans who do not align with their extreme agenda.”
The SPLC gained notoriety by pursuing legal action to bankrupt Klu Klux Klan factions in the 1980s, but has more recently accused mainstream conservative and religious organizations, such as the Alliance Defending Freedom, of encouraging “hate” or “extremism.”
In 2012, gay rights activist Floyd Corkins used the SPLC’s “hate map” to target the Family Research Council’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. during a violent incident intended to “kill as many individuals as possible.”
Corkins wounded a security guard during the shooting before being subdued and is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence.
Last month, the SPLC listed the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA in its “Hatewatch” newsletter, just a day prior to the conservative activist’s assassination at a speaking event at Utah Valley University on September 10.
The SPLC features a webpage describing White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller as being “credited with crafting the racist and draconian immigration policies of President Trump, including the zero-tolerance policy, widely known as family separation, the Muslim ban, and the cessation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.”
On Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel declared that he had “terminated” all formal affiliations with the SPLC.
“The Southern Poverty Law Center has long since abandoned genuine civil rights advocacy, transforming into a politically motivated smear campaign,” Patel remarked in a statement on X. “Their alleged ‘hate map’ has been utilized to defame average Americans and has incited violence. This troubling history renders them unsuitable for any FBI collaboration.”
“In April, during our Anti-Christian Bias Panel, I clarified that the FBI will never depend on politicized intelligence from external groups, and unequivocally not from the SPLC,” the FBI Director added.
Representatives from the SPLC did not respond promptly to a request for comment.
